MODULE 2: EVOLUTION OF COMPUTING
Objectives:
At the end of the module, you should be able to:
1. Understand how computing has evolved since it began, and what this means for “us all” who
are building and using it.
2. Learn the key players in the history of computers
3. Learn the different forms and types of computers that emerged throughout history.
1.1. Early Computing Technologies
a. Various forms date back to 2300 BC
The abacus (plural abaci or
abacuses), also called a counting
frame, is a calculating tool that was
once widely used in Europe, China
and Russia, centuries before the
adoption of the written Hindu–
Arabic numeral system. The exact
origin of the abacus is still unknown.
Asian Abacus Roman Abacus
b. 1600s: Mechanical Calculating Machines
Mechanical Calculating
Machines is the first mechanical
calculating device.
The pascaline is a
1610: Mechanical
mechanical calculator invented
Calculating Machines by Blaise Pascal in 1642. The
calculator was conceptualized
when he was helping his father
1642: Pascaline
in reorganizing the tax revenues
for the French province. The original name was
Arithmetic Machine, then it was renamed Pascal's
Calculator and later named Pascaline. The machine could
1694: Gottfried
Leibniz’s mechanical add and subtract two numbers, and it can multiply and
calculator divide by repetition.
c. 1801: Jacquard Loom
Joseph Jacquard invents loom that is
programmed” using punched cards.
Machines replacing humans gives rise
to fears: During the Industrial
Revolution, Luddites broke into
factories and mills and destroyed as
many machines as possible
d. 1860s: Babbage’s Engines - Charles Babbage invents (but never completely builds) two
machines:
Difference Engine –To solve Analytical Engine –General purpose
polynomial equations machine, precursor to the computer
e. Mid 1800s: Ada Lovelace
Ada Lovelace, daughter of the poet Lord Byron, worked with
Babbage on the Analytical Engine
Programmed Analytical Engine using punched cards
Considered first computer programmer
Ada programming language named after her
f. 1890: Hollerith’s Census Machines
Herman Hollerith developed a
machine for tabulating US census
which used punched cards
1880 census took 8 years to tabulate
1890 census took 1 year
Hollerith’s Tabulating Machine
Company later became part of IBM
g. 1936: Turing Machine
Alan Turing, considered the father of computer science,
described a theoretical device called the Turing machine or
“a-machine”. Formalized the concepts of computation and
algorithms
Turing later helped crack German military codes during
World War II
h. 1939: Atanasoff-Berry Computer
John Atanasoff
and Clifford Berry
built the ABC at
Iowa State which
found solutions to
systems of linear
equations
Considered first fully electronic digital
computing device, but was not programmable
or fully functional
i. 1944: Harvard Mark I
Howard Aiken designs Mark I, the first
operational general-purpose electro-
mechanical computer. Financed and
built at IBM
j. 1946: ENIAC
John Mauchley and Presper Eckert
complete the Electronic Numerical
Integrator and Calculator (ENIAC) at
University of Pennsylvania. Much
based on Atanasoff’s ABC
First general purpose, digital electronic
computer
Could compute a ballistic firing
trajectory in 20 sec vs. 30 min
conventional way.
Dimensions: 30 x 30 feet
Weight: 30 tons
Powered by 18,000 vacuum tubes
k. 1947: Computer Bug
Computer operators working with Grace Murray Hopperon Harvard’s Mark II
computer discover a “bug”, a moth lodged in the components, and paste it into the
computer’s logbook which now resides in Smithsonian.
l. 1947: Transistor
Bell Labs develops the transistor (right),
an electronic switch made with a small
piece of silicon with added impurities.
It’s smaller, uses less power, more
reliable, and cheaper to produce than
vacuum tubes (left)
m. 1951: UNIVAC I
UNIVersal Automatic Computer I (UNIVAC I),
designed principally by Eckert and Mauchly, is
the first commercially successful computer
Price: $1.25M -$1.5M
Units Produced: 46
Sweeney (left) andEckert (center)
demonstrate the U.S. Census
Bureau's UNIVAC for CBS reporter
Walter Cronkite(right).
n. 1954: FORTRAN
John Backus and IBM develop FORTRAN, the first
successful high-level programming language and
compiler
Designed for scientific problems and still widely used
today
o. 1955: Logic Theorist
The first artificial intelligence program written by
Allen Newell, Herbert Simon and J. C. Shaw
mimicked the problem solving skills of a human by
proving math theorems
The term artificial intelligence (AI) would be coined
in 1956 at the Dartmouth summer research project
on artificial intelligence
p. 1958: Integrated Circuit
Integrated circuits (chips) independently co-
invented by Jack Kilbyof Texas Instruments and
Robert Noyce of Fairchild Semiconductor
Transistors, and other electronic components
all fabricated on single chip of silicon
q. 1962: Spacewar!
Spacewar! is the first computer game, written
by Steve Russell (from MIT) and his small team
for the PDP-1 computer
r. 1965: Moore’s Law
Gordon Moore, a co-founder of Intel, predicts that the number of transistors which
can be placed on a single chip will double every year. The prediction was later
modified to every 2 years, but it has held steady and was dubbed “Moore’s Law”
around 1970
s. 1969: ARPANET
ARPANET, which eventually becomes the Internet, goes online with 4 nodes.
Department of Defense sponsors ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency) to build
a robust interconnected network of geographically distant computers
